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120 gallon 450 litre - Quick pic update page 9

Alastair

Alastair

Member
Joined
27 Dec 2009
Messages
4,400
Location
Denton, Manchester
Right, here goes....

This is my first serious go at a planted tank. Had a massive leak on my other so with the help of my friend, we stripped down my old 450,boxed it up and started on this one. Until now ive never been serious about planting, and my orevious tank was just plants thrown in and left to there own devices, bit of ferts here and there and way too much fish. would just like to thank my friend paul at star aquatics for the help with the old tank, and also giving me all my carpeting plants for free!!!! very lush too.

so here goes,

lighting: 4x54 t5s (using only 2 for now for 7 hours)

Filtration tetratec ex1200 and ex2400

substrate: base layer of JBL Aquabasis plus, capped with tesco lightweight cat litter

Hardscape: very large trunk with roots, and a smaller piece opposite

ferts: tff plant nutrition from aquarium plant food dosing 5 ml per 50 litres so dosing for 350 litres given whats in the tank.

co2: currently waiting for delivery of a 3kg fe which should arrive by monday, looking for reg and diffuser

im very pleased i went with the cat litter though, cost me a total of about 15 pound and still had some left over and think the colour is lovely, its a bit light though but once settled and plants are rooted it shouldnt be a problem but for now i have turned down my flow.



so have just finished filling the tank so heres a couple of pics, will post more as i plant

Couldnt resist this for some reason
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Theres currently 7 bleack neon tetras, 1 chocolate gourami few ottos and 2 albino corys. ill be ordering about ten Red Cherry Shrimp too next week.

Plants are 5 pots of eleocharis which one im not sure as they are quite tall, about 10 cm. Lilaeopsis mauritiana, an echodorus ozelot and some anubias nana petite i think. Im thinking to plant the lilaeosis in small bunches from the left around the large wood, and on the right to the middle, and having eleocharis in the centre, which i want to keep very open and have no tall plants at all. in the centre towards the back id like some pogostomon erectus just to fill it in but keep low. not sure what to put behind the big wood as yet though. pogostomen stellata possibly with rotala?? any thoughts? also what plant coild i use to the far right to fill in around the smaller wood?
im waiting on some taiwan moss courtesy of a1matt which i can put onto the branches or roots should i say of the large wood.

comments and criticism very welcome

tank will have cleared by tomorrow so will start planting, thanks for looking guys :thumbup:
 
Re: 450l Juwel vision

ok, so the tank has cleared up massively, so decided to plant some of the grasses to see how they look, bear in mind i havent done this before.
it was a bit challenging though as i had no tweezers and the cat litter is very light. still looks pretty boring though as i have only foreground plants and nothing else as yet.

Also have just started dosing easy carbo until my co2 arrives to help the grasses along a little. What do people think??

imagexms.jpg

some of the carpet plants in
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excuse the silicone under the smaller wood, im hoping to hide that with the plants, it just kept floating so had to attach it to slate, and the wood had been cut at weird angles
Thanks for looking

Al
 
Re: 450l Juwel vision

Corki said:
Good start Al, looking forward to seeing it progress.
Click to expand...

Thanks Corki, was beginning to think no one likes it :lol:

Well ive worked out roughly what plants id like to go where which are:

Front left infront of the wood - Blyxa Japonica with Hemianthus Micranthemoides infront of that
Rear Left - Rotala Rotundafolia or possibly Myriophyllum Mattagrossense then the rotala to right of that.
Off centre left - Pogostemon Stellatus.
Rear Centre - Pogostemon Erectus but kept relatively low ish
Off centre right - Pogostomen Stellatus
Behind small wood and rear right - Heteranthera Zosterifolia and infront of that Hygrophila Corymbosa Siamensis.
Front right - some more Sosterifolia but kept about two inches high
In the centre along the edges of the woods ill be putting in some crypts, possibly wendtii to fill it in a bit..

I may change some of these but after spending a while looking at different plants etc these are what i think will look ok. Will be ordering the plants thursday/Friday

What do people think?
 
Re: 450l Juwel vision

i know what you mean about the flow to the left side, i would normally have had the spray bar attached but lost it when i dismantled my other tank, would you recommend i get a power head and attach it lowdown at the rear left of the tank then? i know the big wood will restrict flow to the lower parts of them if not. or rear right blowing across the back?
i gathered with the substrate, wood etc, that the tank is more about 350 to 380 lites, the filters total 3500 lph, given they run about 60 to 70% of this i think i read on here.

i know its what i think that counts, was just keen to see what people think of my plant arrangement as its very much a learning curve at present
 
Re: 450l Juwel vision

Corki said:
It’s really important to get your flow right once you’ve started using CO2. It isn’t really a good idea to have a powerhead low level in high tech tanks. This is because as soon as CO2 enters the tank all it wants to do is head for the surface and escape. Placing the powerhead high level, slightly pointing down will force the CO2 back to substrate level and carpeting plants. Having the second spraybar in place to the left will help a lot.


With media your filters turnover is about 2100 l/h. Assuming your tanks water capacity is 380 litres, this leaves you 1700 l/h short of the magic 10x figure. I would be inclined to use a couple of small, adjustable circulation pumps with the spraybars bouncing flow off the front glass. Although I’m not sure how this would work with the curved front. It’s just a case of try it and see. Small adjustable 720 to 1600l/h circulation pumps can be found on ebay. They are made by the same manufacturer as Maxi-jet powerheads but unfortunately I cant remember the name, sorry. They’re about £20ish.
Click to expand...

Ahhh I had it that it was 10x including media etc. I'm not sure I'd want more spray bars along the back, but on the other hand I'm not sure additional powerheads pointing towards the front would either as maybe theyd push the flow towards the centre and the sides of the tank may suffer flow wise....
 
Re: 450l Juwel vision

Hiya,

Your a man after my own heart with that big chunk of wood. 🙂

I can't echo Corki enough though on the flow issue. I've had no end of issues with CO2 distribution due to the large stumps of wood in my corner creating dead spots. Koralia and an extra internal filter help me massively.

Plants wise, Moss the hell out of the wood 🙂. I'd love to send you some of my weeping moss for the top of the right stump, would be cool cascading down the sides, but i need it all for my new project.

Best Regards,
John
 
Re: 450l Juwel vision

Hi john,
i must be, i saw this piece and just couldnt resist buying it, i was originally just going to go with only plants. Ill be mossing some of the branches on the big wood with taiwan moss, and maybe the big trunk of it too, but will certainly look out for some weeping moss to use on the wood on the right, i think it will look good.

Flow wise, im just in two minds as to invest in say a koralia, or go with an extra filter, but saying that id still get flow issues with the large wood, so maybe the koralia would be a better idea, attached to the front right blowin down and left??
 
Re: 450l Juwel vision

ALt81 said:
Hi john,
i must be, i saw this piece and just couldnt resist buying it, i was originally just going to go with only plants. Ill be mossing some of the branches on the big wood with taiwan moss, and maybe the big trunk of it too, but will certainly look out for some weeping moss to use on the wood on the right, i think it will look good.

Flow wise, im just in two minds as to invest in say a koralia, or go with an extra filter, but saying that id still get flow issues with the large wood, so maybe the koralia would be a better idea, attached to the front right blowin down and left??
Click to expand...

For the Rio 180 i'm going to replace my corner with i've got two ex 1200's so hopefully i won't need the Koralia. Tbh thou, they are pretty damn cheap for the nano one and very useful if you find you have dead spots.

Best Regards,
John
 
Re: 450l Juwel vision

hi nice scape should look good when grown in i agree lots of moss covering the stumps would look awsome
 
Re: 450l Juwel vision

Hoping so, have just planted two lots of limnophelia aromatics, rotala wallichii and ludgwigia glandulosa to help with preventing algae as im beginning to see it appearing. Not sure on the positioning of them yet but will be putting up pictures over the weekend when everything is finally planted:0)
 
Re: 120 gallon 450l Juwel vision

Right, finally getting round to udating my journal. The tank didnt get much done to it for a bit. around about 2 months ago i finally got stuck in properly, pulled out most of the stems as they grew too quickly for me and the addition of pressurised co2 just made it worse :lol: .
changes to equipment are as follows:

now run two fx5 filters
pressurised co2 via 22kg cylinder, up reg and super atomiser internal diffuser which runs into 1 of the intakes.
upgraded from 4 x 54 watt t5s to a twin 150w halide unit with 2 54watt t5s
co2 on at 12, t5s on at 2, halides on 4 till 8 , co2 off then lights out at ten works well and no visible pest algae other than a bit of green spot on the glass.
Full EI dosing 5 out of 7 days and 50% water change on saturday.

decided to just go with a more jungle theme with the big piece of wood not giving much scope to anything in the way of scaping.

heres current pics taken with iphone so not great

my view from the sofa
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full shot
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one of my chocolate gouramis scouraging
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view from the top
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as you can see its very much a collectoritis sort of tank, but im very happy with it for my first high tech go. I love the blyxa which is growing mental since i went with the halides, its got a really nice pinkish hue to it and it pearls for britain. Im very happy i went with the halides, albeit yes alot of light when all are on, but i love the shimmering it gives off in the tank. excuse the arcadia feet its resting on. ive got some nice arched poles being made by a welders next to me to stand up behind the tank to hold it. Unfortunately, my cardinals tend to hide away a fair bit when they come on. would introducing more of them bring them out? i have twenty in so far.

i think im lucky in that i havent had any real problem with algae, other than a bit of green spot but that seems to be under control now.

have just put in some helferi at the very front which im hoping will do well, tried HC and glosso and had no luck at all. fingers crossed.

must admit my favourite fish in here so far has to be my chocolate gouramis, great characters and despite me thinking thed be hiding away, there always out and come up to you when you pop your face to the tank. greedy bleeders too. Despite the fact i have lots of fish it doesnt look like theres hardly any in there with how big it is.

Ill be looking to eventually move the big wood out of it so i can try to scape it a little more. it impacts with flow alot too.

The only real problem i have, is that overnight i get an oily film on the surface, but by about mid photperiod it seems to have almost gone. Any ideas?

Hope it looks ok for a first attempt thanks everyone for all the help and advice so far :clap: :clap: :clap: :thumbup:
 
Re: 120 gallon 450l vision update with pics

Hey alastair, looking nice, i must have missed this journal when you started it. The wood looks really nice, shame its a hinderance though. Large pieces of wood are the motivation for pulling my bow front down. A lot of people spend so much time thinking about lighting, do i have enough/ too much?? etc, that flow seems to get lost in the noise. This was my first tank and i certainly didnt really read anything about flow until i joined this forum a few months back. Talking about light, i would like a little more 😀
All your plants look nice and healthy bud, just need to get those Kribs in there... and the SAE and killi's if you want them all..?
Catch ya later.
 
Re: 120 gallon 450l vision update with pics

cheers mate, i know its not every ones cup of tea by a long shot, but im happy so far with it, its been more of a learning curve how to grow nice healthy plants and no or little algae. still have to sort the centre rear out with some taller plants at the back but overall it looks not too bad i think
 
Re: 120 gallon 450l vision update with pics

easerthegeezer said:
You think right!
Nice to see the Blyxa is going well as this is on my plant list.
What are you planning for the middle??
Click to expand...

well i really like the ludwigia repens rubin that ive put in, was green at first but is chamging to a really nice pinkish red and growing really well, so am going to take some cuttings of that and put behind my ozelots at the rear to replace the hygro polysperma which is like a weed now.

ive also kindly been given an aponogaten crispus red off a member on here whos closing his tank down so the will go in the left side top break up some of the greens. Have just done a water change today and decided on the front left side im going to take out my saggitaria and replace with blyxa as im really liking it at the minute and the crispus red will contrast nicely with it
 
Re: 120 gallon 450l vision update with pics

Ah mate that has gone really well.

Congrats!
 
Re: 120 gallon 450l vision update with pics

hijac said:
Ah mate that has gone really well.

Congrats!
Click to expand...

Thanks mate, im quite pleased myself, its nice to look at anyway. Not up to the standard of most tanks on here but it keeps me entertained. the challenge will be when the big wood comes out and i go for purely lots of plants. The bow front does make it awkward for a layout i think
 
Re: 120 gallon 450l vision update with pics

Alastair said:
hijac said:
Ah mate that has gone really well.

Congrats!
Click to expand...

Thanks mate, im quite pleased myself, its nice to look at anyway. Not up to the standard of most tanks on here but it keeps me entertained. the challenge will be when the big wood comes out and i go for purely lots of plants. The bow front does make it awkward for a layout i think
Click to expand...


When I first whipped out the giant log bits from my corner I put in some bendy redmoor roots with moss on as hardscape. Allowed much more planting space and still allowed moss (which i really like). I'd advise that. A bendy root rammed into the substrate securely has a tiny footprint.

Best Regards,
John
 
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